Crossing the Bounds
by Cheatou
Summary: From the comics to the series to the movies, no two versions of Rogue have ever been alike. What if they didn’t just meet, but were combined? An interesting concept, set in the Evoloution universe. I know, I'll update more often. I hope.
1. Crossing the Bounds

**Prologue**

Never had the woods felt so empty. Rogue was just twelve, and she was sitting on a dead tree with a shotgun across her lap. She couldn't even cook her own food, and every meager meal of berries could easily be her last if she had mixed up which ones were poisionous and which ones weren't. It was a lot for such a little kid to deal with, but she didn't let it get to her.

She had no more than stood up when she heard a noise. Rogue turned quickly, her weapon at the ready, but no one was there. She lowered her gun and started for the stream again.

Soft skin touched the back of her neck, and she began to loose strength. She turned quickly again, but her vision was blurry and she dropped to the ground. Just before her consciousness left her, Rogue could have sworn she saw a lady with pale skin and chestnut brown hair, with two white streaks framing her face. The lady was her.

Slowly Rogue became aware of a new sensation, of the lady who looked like her offering her a hand. She took it, and released her grip on her body.

-

For Anna, life was good. Her final stint as an X-Treme X-man had been pretty adventurous, but when she had recovered completely powerless… That was when the real fun began.

Suddenly so many options were hers again.Her life was full of endless possibilities, especially with her boyfriend, Gambit. She had a normal life and a normal beach house, and her clothes were perfectly suited to her new freedom.

So for her new, completely_ human_, life, seeing a lady who looked almost exactly like herself was _not_ normal, especially when said person was in her bedroom. The other girl even introduced herself with Anna's old code-name, "Rogue."

Rogue smirked as Anna stepped back, closing up her fists in case they had to fight. Anna was surprised, however, when Rogue laughed.

"You're cured?" she said, smirking evilly. Before Anna could react, Rogue grabbed her wrist in a vice-like grip. "That's no big deal, hun."

Anna looked up in horror and awe as she felt the other woman begin to absorb her into her body. What she saw scared her even more: their hands seemed to have melded together. Anna watched as her arm was drawn up into the other woman's body, as their torsos fused and they became one.

She, Rogue, looked up and flipped back her hair, smiling slightly. She was Anna, she was Marie, she was even a hermit child who'd revoked her name. More importantly, she was complete. She was Rogue.


	2. Merging

**Merging**

"No!" The confused cry was no louder than a whisper, but it upset both of the women who had raised the rebellious girl in front of them. "Ah don' care if mah momma was a freakin' Sasquatch, Ah ain't goin' anywhere with this lady Ah hardly know, much less to New freakin' York! Momma Adler, what the hell are you thinkin'?"

"Rogue," the blind woman said warningly, "She is your mother, you are a mutant, and you can't just stay here. Not after what happened to Cody."

"She's right," said Mystique, frowning. Her blue forehead shone with a thin layer of sweat. The two of them had just revealed the shapeshifter's natural form to Rogue, barely a day after her mutation had surfaced. "We need to leave, and I have a place in Bayville, New York. I didn't want to force you, but you really have no choice here."

"Ah…" Rogue didn't really have anything left to say. "Ah can't. This's all movin' too fast. Ah need some time, Ah need t' sort all this mess out."

"Rogue, I-" Mystique started, but Rogue was already running out the door. Mystique started after her, both trying to calm and catch the girl. Unfortunately for her, Rogue knew the woods like the back of her hands, and her hometown was little more than houses, a gas station, a restaurant, and trees. She was gone before Mystique knew which direction to go.

In her hiding place, a clearing near a brook, Rogue finally stopped running. Her body was already quaking with repressed sobs, which gave way to all-out crying as she collapsed to her knees.

Somehow, having two mothers wasn't unusual at all to Rogue. She had grown up with a Momma Irene and a Momma Raven; that was just the way things were. She was even tolerant of mutants, a great fortune to her when she found out she was one.

But of all the powers, poisonous skin had to be the absolute worst. She couldn't even wear a bathing suit anymore because it left so much of her bare, and she loved to swim.

And her Momma Raven was a shapeshifter. The woman she'd known for years, who'd taught her to ride a bike and an A.T.V. and drive a boat and a truck and a car and a motorcycle, who'd been there when she'd caught her first fish and shot her first buck, had outright lied to her her whole life.

Slowly she began to calm down. Raven had only done what she'd thought was best. She'd found Rogue a safe place, gotten her an entire wardrobe of clothes that left not an inch of skin bare, and otherwise taken care of her. She was her mother, and Rogue was being stupid.

Even as she contemplated staying where she was until her mother found her, Rogue was picking herself up off the ground and brushing off her pants. She wiped her eyes and started back to her house, feeling unnaturally relieved and relaxed.

A sudden noise behind her caught Rogue's attention. She turned only her head, and only halfway. There was a hint of motion, and stillness fell over the woods again. Rogue shrugged and took a few more steps. A slight noise from behind her, and she turned around with a kick. The other girl jumped over her leg, and Rogue froze.

It was _her_! She had attacked herself? How?

No sooner did those thoughts flit through her head than Rogue dismissed them. "Ya're a shapeshifter, raht?"

The other girl laughed. "Quick thinker. Wrong."

"Then wha-" Rogue was pinned to a tree. The other girl laughed as Rogue struggled.

"What do I look like?" the girl asked. It was Rogue's voice, laden with Rogue's sarcasm, coming out of a girl who looked awful close to her. "I'm you. From a couple of alternate worlds, of course."

"Whaddaya mean a couple?" asked Rogue, startled. The other just laughed. Rogue was aware of how close the other was when an idea struck.

Ducking under her arm, Rogue escaped the other's clutches for merely a moment. It was all she needed. The other girl, the other Rogue, turned quickly, only to feel Rogue's hand over her mouth.

Something felt wrong, beyond wrong. Rogue tried to pull back her hand, but it had melted into the other girl's face like putty, and was sucking the other girl into Rogue's body. Both of them thrashed a bit, which actually sped up their merging.

After a few minutes, one body fell to the ground, clad in the original Rogue's clothing. She was unconscious, as though in a coma… Like Cody.

-

Slowly Rogue opened her eyes. Her surroundings were strange, full of other Rogues that wandered about aimlessly. Sensing something, they turned and attacked the nearest version of themselves that they could find.

One of them approached her, but Rogue just touched her with a bare hand, absorbing her personality with a single whim.

This one was helpless, as far as Rogue could ascertain. Her eyes were muddy hazel, and her hair was dull. She wasn't athletic, and had first met other mutants while traveling through Canada. Logan, her friend and father figure, had gone on to join the X-Men, whom Raven opposed. That Rogue had joined them happily.

Curious, Rogue moved on to another variation. This Rogue had joined Magneto, Raven's boss, who had formed that dimension's version of the X-Men. She had married him. Anna Marie Darkholme-Lensherr. They'd had a kid, and she didn't know if he was a mutant or not. She never would.

Rogue took many others into herself, adding personalities to her own like facets to a gem. Several Rogues were no more than children, and one was sixty-something. Her power kept her young, though. Finally, there were two left.

These last two seemed to be locked in an unending battle, oblivious to her presence. In response, Rogue ripped off both gloves and grabbed both of them, one in each hand, around the neck.

These two were polar opposites.

In one hand was a mutant policewoman, trying to stop the continued absorption of alternate Rogues. She had traveled with an officer named Bishop to a new world, using a device a technopath named Forge made. She had been absorbed by another Rogue, who had started the chain.

The other Rogue was the terrorist. She had seen a police officer who looked like her, and reached out to stop her from arresting the terrorist's cohorts. Her attempt had backfired, and the two of them had ended up stuck in the same body. Frustration and fury lead her to drain others, to make others join her.

The Rogue that had absorbed everyone else, the only remaining Rogue, _she_, was the end result.

A strangled cry burst from her throat as she was forced back into consciousness. Her body was still rearranging itself and all her features, and it hurt.

A slight noise in the bushes was her only warning as Mystique ran into the clearing. Helpless, Rogue just lay where she was, watching her mother carefully.

Suspicious, Raven pinned her down. Her raspy voice, thick with fear, demanded, "What did you do with my daughter?"

Struck by how familiar that question was, Rogue only answered, "What, don't recognize me?"

Slowly Mystique backed off, and Rogue sat up, already forming her explanation.

Like it or not, one thing was certain; she was going to New York, with or without Mystique.


	3. Meet the XMen

**Meet the X-Men**

Quiet fell over the city. Rogue snuck through the dark alleyways, bolder and more dangerous than most other versions of herself would have been. She had ditched Mystique fairly quickly; her own mother wasn't sure wether or not to believe her, and had needed a lot of time to calm down. Theoretically, since she was born of and raised by more than one mother, Mystique didn't even have parental obligations. Rogue preferred to think of it as that, at least while she was on the road.

Slowly she weaved around the familiar city. She'd been there maybe a week, sleeping under bridges and in abandoned construction sites, but Bayville had the Xavier mansion, so it was the place to be. If the X-men were near, Magneto's crew couldn't be far behind, and Rogue liked the idea of being able to intervene in either side without being noticed.

However, being in Bayville, New York, had it's disadvantages, too. Rogue might have had the minds of several adults, and then some, but as long as she had a teenage body, she still had to go to school. She had enrolled herself, via the phone and a couple of falsified documents that looked legal enough. Her address was that of a house-turned-restaurant on the border of the residential part of town, which she often took the mail from to make sure all of her mail wound up only in her hands.

Summer was barely over, and already there was a biting chill in the air and rainclouds on the horizon. Rogue sighed as a raindrop fell on her forehead. With no further warning, the clouds released a surge of rain, and Rogue was left running for shelter, again.

Rogue found it easily enough. Unfortunately, so did another couple she knew but hadn't met… at least, in her current dimension.

Jean and Scott stared at her, crowding together at the edge of the cover over the walkway in front of some bakery. Judging by their closeness and the redhead's dazed expression, they'd been on a date. The other one was looking at her strangely, like she was an absoloute stranger in his living room. Rogue just glared; she knew how she looked. She looked like a dangerous street rat.

Her body was a normal weight, but all of it was muscle. That meant her six-pack was visible through her form-fitting, but not tight, shirt. She was pale as the moon in the sky. Her hair, mostly a chestnut brown, fell in her face, where it was chalk-white. Her cheeks were sunken and her chin prominent, and on top of that, her eyes were a vivid, aware shade of emrald green. Her gloves and cloak were dirty from wear, and her jeans were almost worn through at the knees. She was also carrying a duffel bag that had seen more than its fair share of use.

Quietly Rogue shifted. Jean Grey looked over at her, as though confused, and Rogue shielded her mind quickly. Jean's probing telepathy never touched her, which startled Rogue. Scott looked at his girlfriend, and Rogue understood why; they were talking, and in a place where she couldn't eavesdrop.

The rain subsided, and the couple stood still, watching her as she ran off to find a decent shelter for the night. Rogue turned a corner and pulled her wallet out of her bag. She had about three hundred dollars, earned from her 'helpless orphan' sympathy card. It wasn't begging if she wanted a freelance job and used her abilities to, well, help it out a bit.

Quickly Rogue stopped by a fast-food restaurant and ordered a cheap meal. The lady at the register, noticing her bag, was slow to complete the transaction. She had just given Rogue her food when another group of X-men walked in.

Kurt, Kitty, Evan, and Tabbitha were accompanied by Ororo and Logan, of all people. Logan's snarl and gruff demeanor reminded Rogue strongly of the Logans she had known. Most of them were people she respected. She even respected Storm, but she hadn't really liked the woman as much as she could have.

Rogue groaned slightly, but set her things down at a small, two-person table in a corner instead of leaving like her instincts told her to. Logan sniffed the restaurant and looked around before his gaze settled on her. Ororo noticed him staring and grabbed him by the shoulder, pulling him away to interrogate. He wrenched free of her grasp and strode over to Rogue's table. "You're the kid from the construction site by the bar."

It was a statement, not a question. It was a true statement, at that. "So what if Ah am?"

Logan grunted, and said, "You got spunk, I'll give ya that, kid."

Rogue bit her lip to keep from telling him how old she was. He just sniffed the room again and sat down.

"Ya don' smell right," Logan said, frowning. "I mean…"

"Ah ain't a kid," Rogue muttered under her breath, knowing he would catch it. He did, and smothered a smile. "Ah know you heard that, mistah supah-senses."

Logan's slight smirk dropped, replaced by a severe frown. He started to say something, but Rogue cut him off. "Don't bothah askin', Ah ain' gonna tell you nothin'. But Ah would lahke t' know some things…"

His head tilted a bit as he thought about what she was saying. "Are you suggestin' a trade of info?"

It was just a hint below a wisper, but Rogue caught it. "Yessir, Ah am."

Logan's eyes narrowed as he studied her closely, but apparantly didn't have any major problem with her. "Sundown, out in front of the Xavier Mansion."

Quietly Rogue nodded and unwrapped her burger, and started to eat.


	4. Allies and Enemies

Rogue made it to the mansion grounds before Logan. She hid herself well, far above the sidewalk and watching for him to arrive. He took a while, but he wasn't on his motorcycle or drinking, so it wasn't a surprise. What completely startled her was that he was a half hour away from their agreed time, the most punctual he had ever been.

She hardly made a sound as she landed on the ground behind him. Her legs didn't hurt at all, too, but that was because of Carol's powers…

Carol Danvers, Ms. Marvel, had been a mutant with the basic powers of flight and super-strength. In no less than four out of six alternate universes, the outcome had been the same; Rogue would drain Carol dry, killing the woman and stealing her powers. For good.

Rogue, in her new and complete body, kept these powers, along with the control over them that she had worked so hard to gain.

"Hey Logan." Quickly he turned around, attempting to pin her by her neck to the nearest solid thing, in this case, the outer wall. She blocked it… with claws of her own. Even she was startled. "Ah kept those?"

Rogue dropped her block, and his arms returned to his side. The arms weren't limp, though, and both of them kept their claws fully extended.

They circled each other as they spoke.

"Is Xavier still in charge a' th' X-Men?" Rogue asked first.

"Yeah," Logan said. "How do you know so much about us?"

"Ah'm from an alternate dimension," Rogue answered simply. "Well, a couple…"

Logan waited for her to embellish. She didn't. "Who all's on th' team?"

"That counts as a couple of questions," Logan pointed out. Rogue shrugged and waited for her answer. He sighed. "Cyclops, Jean, Storm, Beast, Kitty, Kurt, Boom-Boom, Spike, me.

"What're your powers?"

Rogue actually flinched on that one. Her powers had helped cause an interdimensional train wreck of sorts, and she still couldn't safely touch the skin of another person. "My skin absorbs mutant powahs an' memories. Ah touch you, Ah know everythin' you do."

"If you've already touched me," Logan said slowly, "and you can steal memories, then why do you still need information?"

"It's a new world, with new playahs. Ah jus' need t' get back in th' game. You think Ah'm kiddin' with th' whole, 'I come from another world' thing?"

Slowly Logan began to nod, then sat down. "This sounds like it'll take a long time to tell."

"You sure you wanna hear it?" Rogue asked, hoping he'd nod. He did, and she stopped before saying, "First, Ah was usually raised by Mystique. Got a problem?"

Logan tensed, but his curiosity got the better of him. "Not necessarily…"

"Good," Rogue said, smirking, and she sat down to talk with him. Her claws never retracted as she spoke. "Second, Ah'm basically ageless in a teenage body. Dunno how old Ah am, but a nice average is 'bout seventeen.

"So, ah'm a south'ner. No, ya don' need to know where down south. Ah joined th' X-men at age sixteen, and stayed with them fo' nearly two decades. You taught me how ta fight, Logan. Always have, 'less it was Mystique."

"When she raised you?" Logan asked slowly.

Rogue nodded, frowning. "Ah always eithah called her momma or hated the blue bitch. Kinda weird now.

"Anyways, Ah went off on an average mission. Now, in this universe, th' x-men were basically a police force, so all we did was catch mutant criminals. One 'a them, for some reason, had a device that let 'im travel through alternate dimensions. He opened th' damn portal an' Ah didn' get there in time. Bishop, head of th' team at that time, had the same thing, an' we followed him. Well, the two of us did. The criminal Rogue was in the middle of a heist with some'a her friends, and Ah was about to cuff all'a them and leave 'em. We touched, an' she was in mah head, jus' like everyone else.

"Problem was, we weren't just in th' same head. Our bodies had fused inta one… an' Ah had t'deal with her bein' in charge at first. We stole the dimension-hopper thing from th' same damn criminal Ah'd been tryin' t' cuff, an' we were off.

"We're the same person now. We took thirty-one other versions of us into our body, an' damn if we weren't stupid enough to all get absorbed by th' thirty-second. Smart as a whip, no trainin' whatsoever. Slipped under our arm, and grabbed hold. Then, in our mind, managed to meld everyone into… Me."

Slowly Logan nodded. They stayed still in silence for a few more seconds, then he said, "Damn. Any schitzo problems, blame the alternate personalities, right?"

"Frequently," Rogue said, frowning and leaning forward, massaging her temples. "Now Ah'm aligned on both sides, Ah have people Ah care about both sides, so Ah have t' be neutral."

"Or ya can start over," Logan suggested slowly. "The only tie you have in this world is shaky at best. You decide what you do, no one can blame ya fer anythin' you decide, kid."

Rogue nodded slowly, her body shivering slightly from a cold breeze. Quietly Logan stood up, dusted off his jeans, and started to walk off. He paused and turned, probably about to offer her a chance to stay at the X-mansion, but Rogue was gone, leaving behind no trace of her existence. Logan just shrugged and turned around, glancing at the moon as the silhouette of a young woman passed in front of it.


	5. NOT AN UPDATE BUT PLEASE READ!

If you read the new summary, then you know that this is not an update. If not, then now you do. Unfortunately for the, what, dozen or so people? Whatever, sorry. Unfortunately for you, I have completely and totally run out of ideas.

You see, this entire story was written as I thought it up. With a lot of other projects working in my head, this story was pushed to the back. Unfortunately, I couldn't really get back 'into' it the way I need to in order to continue.

However, that doesn't mean I want this story to, well, die. If you like my stories and have any ideas, or not, or just want to, send me a message asking me politely for the story. I'll share what ideas I can recall, and I'll be really happy if anyone else wants these.

All I ask is the credit for my chapters, and a good story.


End file.
